Rate the Quality of Every Job Application You Sent This Week

You applied to jobs this week. Maybe three, maybe ten. Before the weekend starts, spend ten minutes being honest about whether those applications were actually good.

Not whether you got responses. Whether the applications themselves were quality work.

Why this matters:

Most people track quantity. Applications sent, interviews scheduled, rejections received. Almost nobody evaluates whether their applications were strong enough to deserve responses.

If you're sending weak applications to appropriate jobs, you're wasting good opportunities. If you're sending strong applications to wrong-fit jobs, you're wasting time and energy.

Quality assessment tells you which problem you actually have.

What makes an application high quality:

You met at least 70% of required qualifications.

You customized your resume to emphasize relevant experience for this specific role.

You wrote a cover letter that connected your background to their needs, not a generic template.

You researched the company enough to reference something specific about them.

You proofread everything before submitting.

High quality doesn't guarantee responses. But low quality guarantees you're eliminated immediately.

How to rate your applications:

Pull up every application you submitted this week. For each one, answer these questions:

Did you actually meet the required qualifications, or were you stretching?

Did you customize your resume, or did you send your generic version?

Did you write a real cover letter, or did you skip it or use a template?

Did you proofread, or did you rush through submission?

Be honest. Nobody's grading you. You're diagnosing your own process.

What the pattern tells you:

If most applications were high quality but you're not getting responses, your targeting might be off. You're applying to roles that look appropriate but aren't quite right, or you're in a competitive market where even good applications struggle.

If most applications were rushed or generic, you know exactly why you're not getting callbacks. Quality issue, not market issue.

If you only sent one or two applications and they were both high quality, you might need to increase volume while maintaining standards.

The pattern matters more than individual application results.

What to do about low-quality applications:

You sent three applications this week. One was strong, two were rushed. You now know you can produce quality work when you take time, and you default to rushing when you feel pressure to hit numbers.

Solution: Send fewer applications, spend more time on each one. Three high-quality applications beat seven mediocre ones.

Or you sent five applications and realized none of them were good matches for your actual qualifications. You're stretching for roles you're not ready for.

Solution: Adjust your search criteria. Find roles that match your current experience level.

What good applications actually require:

Thirty to forty-five minutes per application if you're doing it right.

Fifteen minutes reading the job description and researching the company.

Fifteen minutes customizing your resume to emphasize relevant experience.

Fifteen minutes writing a specific cover letter.

Five minutes proofreading everything.

If you're spending less than this, your applications probably aren't competitive. If you're spending significantly more, you might be over-customizing or applying to roles that require too much explanation.

What to track going forward:

Start a simple spreadsheet. Columns: Company, Role, Date Applied, Quality Rating (High/Medium/Low), Response (Yes/No/Pending).

After a month, you'll see whether quality correlates with responses. If high-quality applications get responses and low-quality ones don't, you know the system works and you need to maintain standards.

If even high-quality applications get no responses, something else is wrong: targeting, market timing, resume fundamentals, or you're competing in an oversaturated field.

Data tells you what to fix.

What to do right now:

Open your email or application tracking system. List every job you applied to this week. Rate each one honestly: high quality, medium quality, or low quality.

Look at the pattern. What does it tell you about your process?

That's your weekend insight. Monday you adjust accordingly.